Efficient plant regeneration from leaf explants of Solanum americanum

Abstract

A very efficient system for direct plant regeneration from in vitro–derived leaf explants of Solanum americanum was developed. S. americanum is a tropical plant with important medical properties. The in vitro procedure that was established consists of (i) induction of shoots from leaf tissue, (ii) elongation of shoots, and (iii) rooting of plantlets. The induction of shoots was achieved on Murashige and Skoog solid medium supplemented with different combinations of zeatin riboside and 1–naphthalene acetic acid or 6–benzylaminopurine and 1–naphthalene acetic acid. The best combination for plant regeneration was MS with 5.7 mM zeatin riboside and 0.11 mM 1–naphthalene acetic acid. In the second step, the shoot clumps were transferred to MS basal medium without plant growth regulators, resulting in the differentiation of most of the shoot initials into well developed shoots. In the third stage, plantlets were efficiently rooted on half-strength MS basal medium supplemented with 58.5 mM sucrose. The rooted plants were established in soil with a 100% success rate. This system can be useful to perform further experiments to obtain transgenic plants of this species as well as for other biotechnological approaches.

Keywords: American nightshade, organogenesis, shoots regeneration, in vitro culture, zeatin riboside, 1–naphthalene acetic acid, medicinal plant species

African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 9(36), pp. 5830-5835, 6 September, 2010